IQNA

TEHRAN (IQNA) – The US Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to block a judge's ruling that prevented President Donald Trump's Muslim ban from being applied to grandparents of US citizens and refugees already being processed by resettlement agencies.

In a court filing on Friday, the administration asked the
justices to overturn Thursday's decision by a US district judge in Hawaii,
which limited the scope of the administration's temporary ban on refugees and
travelers from six Muslim countries.

The latest round in the fight over Trump's March 6 executive
order, which he says is needed for national security reasons, came after the
Supreme Court intervened last month to partially revive the two bans, which
were blocked by lower courts.

The Supreme Court said then that the ban could take effect,
but that people with a "bona fide relationship" to a US person or
entity could not be barred.

The administration had narrowly interpreted that language,
saying the ban would apply to grandparents and other family members, prompting
the state of Hawaii to ask Hawaii-based US District Judge Derrick Watson to
expand the definition of who could be admitted.

He ruled for the state late on Thursday.

"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family
members be defined to include grandparents," US District Judge Derrick
Watson said in his ruling, Al Jazeera reported.

"Indeed grandparents are the epitome of close family
members."

In the court filing, the Justice Department said Watson's
ruling on refugees would make the Supreme Court's decision on that part of the
executive order "effectively meaningless".

The ruling, if left in place, means refugees can continue to
be resettled in the United States, beyond a cap of 50,000 set by the executive
order.

That limit was reached this week.

The Supreme Court's decision last month revived parts of
Trump's March 6 executive order banning travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia,
Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, as well as refugees for 120 days.

The Trump administration then decided that spouses, parents,
children, fiances and siblings would be exempt from the ban, but not
grandparents and other family members travelling from those countries.

The Trump administration also said that all refugees without
a close family tie would be blocked from the country for four months.